ISSF Ad Hoc Committee for Sustainability meets for the first time

The aim of the working group is to develop a Sustainability Policy, as well as a manual for the environmentally sustainable management of shooting ranges.

Environmental compatibility and sustainability are increasingly becoming a key issue of our society and, of course, do not stop at sports. Sustainability is therefore also one of the Working Principles of the IOC, according to which everything - including staging the Games - should be done in an environmentally and socially responsible manner with an overall positive impact on society.

In its Agenda 2020, the IOC commits itself to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and, in one of the 40 recommendations, also calls on the Olympic Movement as a whole - and thus the ISSF as an International Federation - to address the issue in its areas. As a result, the ISSF Executive Committee took the initiative to make the ISSF fit for the future in this important area, especially since there are some challenges in shooting sport.

In order to deal with the topic comprehensively, the Executive Committee decided among other things to establish an Ad Hoc Committee for Sustainability. Members of the committee are proven experts in their respective fields: Dr. Neda Nozari (Member ISSF Medical Committee), Joachim Streitberger (Chairman WFSA Environmental Committee), Stefano Rosi (Director Italian Shooting Federation FITAV), Robert Mitchell (Member ISSF Executive Committee, long time CEO of USA Shooting), Demetris Lordos (Chairman ISSF Shotgun Committee), Peter Underhill (Chairman ISSF Judges Committee) and Chairman Jörg Brokamp (Chairman ISSF Technical Committee). The working group, supported by two representatives of the IOC Sustainability Department and the Sports Department, met last week for its first meeting in the headquarters of the NOC for Germany in Frankfurt. At this kick-off event, expectations, fields of action and the future way of working were agreed upon before the contents of the identified fields of action were considered. Several presentations accompanied the constructive discussions about the different topics. The aim of the working group is to develop a Sustainability Strategy or Policy as a template for the Executive Committee, as well as a manual for the environmentally sustainable management of shooting ranges.

At the end of the session, participants agreed that this was a very productive and positive first step, with more to follow.